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J*lp*^tioiwfcn 


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I 


/2.  .)5'.^) 


LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Di'vision'^ 


Section. 


^^^^^^^^^^^^B  ' 

..»^^^^^^ 

^      L 


:* 

V 

#*  i 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

HZW  YORE  •   BOSTON   •   CHICAGO   •  DALLAS 
ATLANTA    •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON   •  BOMBAY   •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


'AL  SIV 


3B^  IDacmiffan    (Eotttpanv    >^ 


MCMXIX 


COPYRIGHT,    I9IQ     BY   THE   M ACMILLAN   COMPANY 
Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  November,  1919. 


Contend 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  An  Age  of  Wonders ii 

II.  Preparation  for  the  Event.  .  .   15 

III.  A  Wonderful   Fulfillment  of 

Prophecy 19 

IV.  An  Historical  Event 22 

V.  Simplicity  of  the  Narrative.  . .   25 

VI.  The  Town  of  Bethlehem 27 

VII.  The  Wonderful  Night  Draws 

Near 31 

VIII.  The  Birth 35 

IX.  No  Room  in  the  Inn 37 

X.  Angel  Ministry 40 

XI.  Angels  and  Shepherds 45 

XII.  The  Concert  in  a  Sheep  Pas- 

ture    48 

XIII.  The  First  Visitors  to  Bethle- 

hem   55 

XIV.  The  Star  and  the  Wise  Men.  .  62 


Contnttsf 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XV.  A  Frightened  King 65 

XVI.  An  Impotent  Destroyer d'j 

XVII.  Splendid  Gifts 71 

XVIII.  Was  a  Child  the  Best  Christmas 

Gift  to  the  World  ? 79 

XIX.  A  World  Without  Christmas  . .  84 

XX.  Has  the  Christmas  Song  Sur- 
vived THE  World  War? 87 

XXI.  The  Light  of  the  World 91 


cen 


(§  MU  tnmtt  of  IrtJiIrlrpm, 

^am  Btill  mt  Btt  ti^vB  ixt  I 
^bam  tl|g  http  attb  hrsvimUsB  Blttp 

©Ijr  atlf  nt  Btara  90  bg ; 
^rt  in  tl|g  Jiark  atr^rta  alyttt^tlj 

QIl|?  I|0pw  ottb  fpara  of  all  tlyp  grara 
Ar^  mrt  in  ti\tt  to-niglit 

— Phillips  Brooks. 


Z71 


A  Wonderful  Night 


I.  Sin  age  of  ^onuer^ 

E  live  in  an  age  of  won- 
ders. Great  discoveries  and 
startling  events  crowd  upon 
us  so  fast  that  we  have 
scarcely  recovered  from  the 
bewildering  effects  of  one 
A  before  another  comes,  and 
we  are  thus  kept  in  a  constant  whirl 
of  excitement.  The  heavens  are  full  of 
shooting  stars,  and  while  watching  one  we 
are  distracted  by  another.  So  frequent  is 
this  experience  that  our  nerves  almost  re- 
fuse to  respond  to  the  shock  of  a  new 
sensation.  We  are  no  longer  surprised  at 


surprises.  The  marvelous  has  become  the 
commonplace,  and  the  unexpected  is  what 
we  now  expect. 

Yet  we  are  not  to  suppose  that  our  age 
is  the  only  one  that  has  had  its  wonders. 
Other  times  had  theirs  also,  only  these  old- 
time  wonders  have  become  familiar  to  us 
and  ceased  to  be  wonderful;  but  in  their 
day  they  were  marvelous,  and  some  of 
them  equalled  if  they  did  not  surpass  any 
wonders  we  have  witnessed.  The  Great 
War  was  the  most  cataclysmic  eruption 
that  has  ever  convulsed  the  world,  but  it 
was  not  more  revolutionary  and  sensa- 
tional in  the  twentieth  century  than  the 
French  Revolution  was  in  the  eighteenth 
and  the  Reformation  was  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  discovery  of  America  in  the 
fifteenth  century  created  immense  excite- 
ment and  was  relatively  a  more  colossal 
and  startling  occurrence  than  anything 
that  has  happened  since. 

1:12] 


The  telescope  and  the  Copernican  theory- 
were  as  great  achievements  in  their  day  as 
the  spectroscope  and  the  nebular  hy- 
pothesis are  in  our  day.  The  most  useful 
inventions  and  the  most  marvelous  pro- 
ducts of  the  human  brain  are  not  the 
railway  and  telegraph  after  all.  The  art 
of  printing,  which  infinitely  multiplies 
thought  and  sows  it  in  the  very  air  and 
every  morning  photographs  the  world 
anew,  is  a  more  useful  invention  and  in 
its  day  was  a  great  wonder.  Still  farther 
back,  hidden  in  the  mists  of  antiquity, 
lies  the  invention  of  the  alphabet  that  is 
even  more  useful  and  marvelous.  It  is 
when  we  get  back  to  the  oldest  tools,  the 
hammer  and  plough  and  loom,  that  we 
come  to  inventions  of  the  greatest  funda- 
mental utility,  and  we  could  better  afford 
to  give  up  all  our  modern  magic  machines 
than  to  part  with  these. 

The  oldest  literature  is  ever  the  ripest, 

CIS] 


9i  ^onDerful  j^fg^t 

richest  and  best,  and  Homer  and  Shake- 
speare overtop  all  our  modern  writers  as 
the  Alps  overshadow  the  hills  lying  around 
their  feet.  What  modern  preacher  can  com- 
pare in  eloquence  and  power  with  Paul  and 
Isaiah  ?  Nature  is  ever  full  of  new  wonders, 
and  yet  the  grass  was  as  green  and  the 
mountains  as  grand  and  the  golden  nets 
and  silver  fringes  of  the  clouds  were  as 
resplendent  in  the  days  of  Abraham  as 
they  are  to-day.  We  are  the  heirs  of  the 
ages,  but  wonder  and  wisdom  were  not 
born  with  us,  and  with  us  they  will  not  die. 
Where  must  we  go  to  find  the  greatest 
wonder?  Not  to  the  scientist's  discoveries 
and  the  inventor's  cunning  devices:  the 
greatest  marvel  is  not  material  but  spirit- 
ual; and  to  find  it  we  must  not  look  into 
the  present  or  future,  but  go  back  to  the 
first  Christmas  morning.  On  that  morning 
the  Judean  shepherds  had  a  story  to  tell 
which  all  they  that  heard  it  wondered  at 


at  l^ontinful  iiig^t 


and  which  is  still  the  wonder  and  song  of 
the  world.  The  birth  of  Jesus  is  absolutely 
the  greatest  event  of  all  time.  Whatever 
view  is  taken  of  him  he  has  become  the 
Master  of  the  world.  Christ  has  created 
Christendom,  silently  lifting  its  moral 
level  as  mountains  are  heaved  up  against 
the  sky  from  beneath.  The  coming  of  such 
a  unique  and  powerful  personality  into  the 
world  is  an  infinitely  greater  wonder  than 
the  discovery  of  a  new  continent  or  the 
blazing  out  of  a  new  star  in  the  sky. 

II.  preparation  tot  tlje  (I];t3mt 

EAR  events  may  have  re- 
mote causes.  The  river  that 
sweeps  by  us  cannot  be  ex- 
plained without  going  far 
back  to  hidden  springs  in 
distant  hills.  The  huge 
wave  that  breaks  upon  the 
ocean  shore  may  have  had  its  origin  in  a 

CIS  3 


8L  MonDetfttI  0^ 

submarine  upheaval  five  thousand  miles 
away. 

A  wide  circle  of  causes  converged  tow- 
ards this  birth;  all  the  spokes  of  the  ancient 
world  ran  into  this  hub.  When  Abraham 
started  west  as  an  emigrant  out  of  Baby- 
lonia, "not  knowing  whither  he  went,"  he 
was  unconsciously  traveling  towards  Beth- 
lehem. Jewish  history  for  centuries  headed 
towards  this  culmination;  this  was  the 
matchless  blossom  that  bloomed  out  of 
all  that  growth  from  Abraham  to  Joseph 
and  Mary.  Priest  and  prophet,  tabernacle 
and  temple,  gorgeous  ritual  and  streaming 
altar,  sacrifice  and  psalm,  kingdom  and 
captivity,  triumph  and  tragedy  were  all 
so  many  roots  to  this  tree.  These  were  the 
education  and  discipline  of  the  chosen 
people,  preparing  them  as  soil  out  of  which 
the  Messiah  could  spring.  The  great  ideas 
of  the  unity  and  sovereignty,  spirituality 
and  righteousness  of  God,  the  sinfulness 

1:16] 


of  sin  and  the  need  of  an  atonement  were 
in  flaming  picture  language  emblazoned 
before  the  people  and  burnt  into  their 
conscience.  Christ  could  do  nothing  until 
these  ideas  were  rooted  in  the  world. 

Pagan  achievements,  also,  "the  glory- 
that  was  Greece  and  the  grandeur  that 
was  Rome,"  were  roots  to  this  same  tree 
of  preparation  for  the  coming  of  Christ, 
though  they  knew  it  not.  Greece  with  all 
the  glories  of  its  philosophy  and  art  showed 
that  the  world  never  could  be  saved  by 
its  own  wisdom;  and  all  the  laws  and 
legions  of  Rome  were  equally  impotent 
to  lift  it  out  of  the  ditch  of  sin.  Neither  a 
brilliant  brain  nor  a  mailed  fist  can  save  a 
lost  world.  Yet  both  Greece  and  Rome 
made  positive  contributions  to  the  prepara- 
tion for  Christ.  Greece  fashioned  a  mar- 
velous instrument  for  propagating  the 
gospel  in  its  highly  flexible  and  expressive 
language,  and  Rome  reduced  the  world  to 

CI?] 


order  and  hushed  it  into  peace  and  thus 
turned  it  into  a  vast  amphitheater  in 
which  the  gospel  could  be  heard.  Greece 
also  contributed  philosophy  that  threw 
light  on  the  gospel,  and  Rome  gave  it  a 
rich  inheritance  of  law. 

God  thus  set  this  event  in  a  mighty- 
framework  of  preparation.  He  got  the 
world  ready  for  Christ  before  he  brought 
Christ  to  the  world.  He  was  in  no  haste 
and  took  plenty  of  time  before  he  struck 
the  great  hour.  The  harvest  must  lie 
out  in  the  showers  and  sunshine  for  weeks 
and  months  before  it  can  ripen  into  golden 
wheat,  and  the  meteor  must  shoot  through 
millions  of  invisible  miles  for  one  brief 
flash  of  splendor.  The  centuries  seemed 
slow-footed  during  that  long  and  dreary 
stretch  from  Abraham  to  Mary,  "but 
when  the  fulness  of  time  was  come,  God 
sent  forth  his  Son." 

CiS] 


III.  3  OT[onDerful  jFulfiUment  of  |^ropl)ec^ 

HIS  birth  was  a  wonderful 
fulfillment  of  prophecy.  The 
Jews  had  cherished  the 
hope  of  the  promised  Mes- 
siah for  thousands  of  years. 
Through  all  their  national 
vicissitudes,  enslavement  in 
Egypt,  wanderings  in  the  wilderness,  estab- 
lishment and  growth  in  the  promised  land, 
internal  division  and  external  captivity  in 
Babylon,  restoration,  and  final  subjection 
to  the  Romans,  this  hope  burned  on  the 
horizon  of  their  future  as  a  fixed  star.  It 
was  this  that  ever  led  them  on  and  held 
them  together  and  made  it  impossible 
to  break  or  subdue  their  spirit.  This  was 
the  dawn  that  filled  all  their  dark  and  bitter 
days  with  the  rosy  glow  of  hope. 

Yet  the  Messiah  came  not,  and  as  the 
centuries  slowly  rolled  along  they  must 
have  grown  weary  and  at  times  have 
doubted.  Sceptics  scoffed,  "Where  is  the 

1:193 


sign  of  his  coming?'*  But  the  great  heart 
of  the  nation  remained  true  to  its  trust, 
while  prophets  caught  glimpses  of  the 
coming  glory  and  white-headed,  trembling 
old  saints  prayed  that  they  might  live  a 
little  longer  and  not  die  before  he  came. 
Perhaps  this  hope  was  never  at  a  lower 
ebb  than  when  the  Roman  power  was 
ruthlessly  grinding  the  nation  down  into 
the  dust.  But  suddenly  at  this  darkest 
hour  a  blinding  light  burnt  through  the 
floor  of  heaven  and  shepherds  ran  about 
announcing  that  the  Messiah  was  born! 
Who  can  imagine  the  surprise,  the  wonder, 
the  overwhelming  amazement  this  news 
created?  How  many  were  eager  to  go 
to  Bethlehem  and  see  this  thing  which  had 
come  to  pass!  And  when  it  was  found  to 
be  true,  they  rejoiced  with  exceeding 
great  joy  and  old  men  blessed  God  and 
said,  "Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  serv- 
ants depart  in  peace." 

1:20] 


a  ^ontierful  iiigtjt 

Yet  why  should  they  have  wondered  at 
God*s  faithfulness  in  keeping  his  promise, 
as  though  he  could  ever  have  forgotten  it 
or  failed  to  bring  it  to  pass?  Why  should 
we  ever  wonder  at  the  faithfulness  of 
God?  Doubtless  in  some  degree  because 
of  our  human  infirmity.  Our  sense  of  unity 
with  God  and  trust  in  him  have  been 
weakened  by  sin  until  we  are  ready  to 
doubt  him  as  though  he  were  one  of  our- 
selves. His  promises  also  are  so  far-reaching 
and  great,  splendid  and  blessed,  they  so  far 
surpass  our  thoughts  of  wisdom  and  mercy, 
that,  even  though  they  have  been  re- 
peated to  us  until  we  are  familiar  with 
them,  when  they  are  fulfilled  we  wonder 
at  the  faithfulness  that  will  bring  so  great 
things  to  pass. 


1:213 


IV.  Sin  ^i&mitdA  €tmt 


HE  story  starts  with  the 
place  and  time  of  the  Sa- 
viour*s  birth.  Jesus  was 
born  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea, 
in  the  days  of  Herod  the 
king.  There  are  many 
myths  and  legends  floating 
through  the  world  that  are  often  beau- 
tiful and  useful,  but  they  hang  like 
gorgeous  clouds  in  the  air  and  are  ever 
changing  their  shape  and  place.  They 
are  growths  of  the  imagination  and  lack 
historic  roots  and  reality.  They  are  chary 
of  names  and  dates  and  hide  their  origin 
in  far-away  mists.  However  powerfully 
and  pathetically  they  may  reflect  the 
needs  and  hopes  of  the  human  heart,  they 
are  unsubstantial  as  dreams  and  afford 
no  foundation  on  which  to  build  our  faith. 
Heathen  religions  are  generally  woven 
of  this  legendary  stufi^.  The  Greek  and 
Roman  divinities  were  all  mythical.  But 

1:223 


3i  ^onDerful  0Q^t 

the  scientific  spirit  has  swept  these  imagin- 
ary deities  out  of  our  sky  and  rendered 
belief  in  them  impossible.  Our  religion 
must  be  rooted  in  reality  and  cannot  live 
in  clouds,  however  beautifully  they  may 
be  colored.  We  refuse  hospitality  to  any- 
thing but  fact.  Give  us  names  and  dates, 
is  our  demand. 

The  Bible  responds  to  this  requirement. 
Christianity  is  an  historical  religion.  The 
gospel  narrative  begins  with  no  such  in- 
definite statement  as  "Once  upon  a  time/' 
but  it  starts  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea.  The 
town  is  there  and  we  can  stand  on  the 
very  spot  where  Jesus  was  born.  The  nar- 
rative places  the  time  of  his  birth  in  the 
days  of  Herod  the  king.  History  knows 
Herod;  there  is  nothing  mythical  about 
this  monster  of  iniquity.  These  state- 
ments are  facts  that  no  keenest  critic 
or  scholarly  unbeliever  can  plausibly  dis- 
pute. So  the  gospel  sets  its  record  in  the 

1:233 


a  Wonhtvfvd  Jliig^t 

rigid  frame  of  history;  it  roots  its  origin 
down  in  the  rocky  ledge  of  Judea.  Christ 
was  not  born  in  a  dream,  but  in  Bethle- 
hem. We  are  not,  then,  building  our  faith 
on  a  myth,  but  on  immovable  matters 
of  fact.  This  thing  was  not  done  in  a  corner, 
but  in  the  broad  day,  and  it  is  not  afraid 
of  the  geographer's  map  and  the  historian's 
pen.  The  Christmas  story  is  not  another 
beautiful  legend  in  the  world's  gallery 
of  myths,  but  is  sober  and  solid  reality; 
its  story  is  history.  Our  religion  is  truth, 
and  we  will  worship  at  no  other  altar. 


1:24] 


V.  ^impUcit^  of  tlje  jl^arratibe 


HOUGH  surcharged  with 
such  tremendous  meaning, 
carrying  a  heavier  burden 
of  news  than  was  ever  be- 
fore committed  to  human 
language,  yet  the  simplicity 
with  which  the  story  is  told 
is  one  of  the  literary  marvels  of  the  gospels. 
This  event  has  inspired  poets  and  painters 
and  has  been  embroidered  and  illuminated 
with  an  immense  amount  of  ornamenta- 
tion. Genius  has  poured  its  splendors  upon 
it  and  tried  to  give  us  some  worthy  concep- 
tion of  the  scene.  But  the  evangelists  had 
no  such  purpose  or  thought,  and  their  story 
is  told  with  that  charming  artlessness  that 
is  perfect  art.  They  were  not  men  of  genius, 
but  plain  men,  mostly  tax  collectors  and 
fishermen  untrained  in  the  schools,  with 
no  thought  of  skill  or  literary  art.  Yet  all 
the  stylists  and  artists  of  the  world  stand 
in  wonder  before  their  unconscious  effort 

CzsD 


SI  WonDetful  i^ts^t 

and  supreme  achievement.  No  attempt 
at  rhetoric  disfigures  their  record,  not  a 
word  is  written  for  effect,  but  the  simple 
facts  are  allowed  to  tell  their  own  eloquent 
and  marvelous  tale.  The  inspired  writers 
mixed  no  imagination  with  their  verities, 
for  they  had  no  other  thought  than  to  tell 
the  plain  truth;  and  this  gives  us  confidence 
in  the  trustworthiness  of  their  narrative. 
These  men  did  not  follow  cunningly  de- 
vised fables  when  they  made  known  unto 
us  the  power  and  coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  for  they  were  eye-witnesses 
of  his  glory. 


n26] 


VI.  tCtie  ®oton  of  BetJUIirm 


HE  land  of  Palestine  is 
divided  from  north  to  south 
by  a  central  range  of 
mountains  which  runs  up 
through  this  narrow  strip 
of  country  like  a  spinal 
column.  About  five  miles 
south  of  Jerusalem  a  ridge  or  spur  shoots 
off  from  the  central  range  towards  the  east. 
On  the  terminal  bluff  of  this  ridge  lies  the 
town  of  Bethlehem.  On  the  west  it  is  shut 
in  by  the  plateau,  and  on  the  east  the  ridge 
breaks  steeply  down  into  the  plain.  Vine- 
yards cover  the  hillsides  with  green  and 
purple,  and  wheatfields  wave  in  the  val- 
leys. In  the  distant  east,  across  the  Dead 
Sea,  the  mountains  of  Moab  are  penciled 
in  dark  blue  against  the  sky. 

At  the  present  time  the  town  has 
eight  thousand  inhabitants.  Its  flat-roofed 
houses  are  well  built  and  its  narrow  streets 
are  clean.   It  is  a  busy  place,  its  chief 

C27] 


3r  Wonnttfnl  ipigftt 

industry  being  the  manufacture  of  sou- 
venirs of  olive  wood  which  are  sold 
throughout  the  Christian  world.  Its  princi- 
pal church  is  the  Church  of  the  Nativity, 
which  is  built  over  a  cave  that  is  one  of 
the  most  sacred  and  memorable  spots  on 
the  globe.  It  is  believed  that  this  cave  is 
the  place  where  Christ  was  born,  and  a 
silver  star  inlaid  in  the  stone  floor  is  in- 
tended to  mark  the  exact  spot.  It  was  then 
used  as  the  stable  of  the  adjoining  inn, 
and  in  its  stone  manger  the  infant  Jesus 
may  have  been  laid. 

At  the  time  of  this  event  Bethlehem 
was  a  mere  village  of  a  few  hundred  people. 
It  might  have  been  thought  that  Jeru- 
salem, the  historic  metropolis  and  proud 
capital  of  the  country,  the  chosen  city  of 
God  and  seat  of  the  temple  and  center  of 
worship,  a  city  beautiful  for  situation, 
magnificent  in  its  architecture,  sacred  in 
its  associations  and  world-wide  and  splen- 

1:283 


did  in  its  fame,  should  have  been  honored 
with  this  supreme  event  in  the  history  of 
the  Jews.  But  an  ancient  prophet,  while 
noting  its  comparative  insignificance,  had 
yet  put  his  finger  on  this  tiny  point  on  the 
map  and  pronounced  upon  it  a  blessing 
that  caused  it  to  blaze  out  like  a  star 
amidst  its  rural  hills.  "But  thou,  Beth- 
lehem Ephratah,  though  thou  be  little 
among  the  thousands  of  Judah,  yet  out 
of  thee  shall  he  come  forth  unto  me  that 
is  to  be  ruler  in  Israel;  whose  goings  forth 
have  been  from  of  old,  from  everlasting." 
And  so  proud  Jerusalem  was  passed  by, 
and  this  supreme  honor  was  bestowed  upon 
the  humble  village. 

Great  men,  as  a  rule,  are  not  born  in 
cities.  They  come  up  out  of  obscure  vil- 
lages and  hidden  nooks  and  corners.  They 
originate  closer  to  nature  than  city-born 
men  and  seem  to  spring  from  the  very 
soil.  The  most  noted  birthplace  in  Scot- 

n293 


a  Wonr>tvful  0^^t 

land  is  that  of  Burns:  it  is  a  humble  cot- 
tage with  a  thatched  roof  and  a  stable  in 
one  end  of  it.  The  most  celebrated  birth- 
place in  England  is  that  of  Shakespeare, 
and  again  it  is  a  plain  cottage  in  a  country 
village.  Lincoln  was  born  in  a  log  hut  in 
the  wilds  of  Kentucky,  Mohammed  was 
the  son  of  a  camel  driver,  and  Confucius 
the  son  of  a  soldier.  The  city  must  go  to 
the  country  for  its  masters,  and  the  world 
draws  its  best  blood  and  brains  from  the 
farm.  It  was  in  accordance  with  this  prin- 
ciple that  the  Saviour  of  the  world  should 
be  born,  not  in  a  city  and  palace,  but  in  a 
country  village,  and  that  his  first  bed 
should  be,  not  a  downy  couch,  but  a  slab 
of  stone. 


CSO] 


VII.  tK^e  Monoerful  0i^^t  SDratDs?  jpear 


OW  it  came  to  pass  in  those 
days,  there  went  out  a  de- 
cree from  Caesar  Augustus, 
that  all  the  world  should 
be  enrolled."  This  is  the 
point  at  which  the  orderly 
and  scholarly  Luke  opens 
his  account  of  the  birth  of  our  Lord.  It 
seems  like  going  a  long  way  off  from  and 
around  to  the  end  in  view.  But  there  are 
no  isolated  facts  and  forces  in  the  world  and 
all  things  work  together.  When  we  see  prov- 
idence start  in  we  never  can  tell  where  it  is 
going  to  come  out.  If  God  is  about  to  bless 
us,  he  may  start  the  chain  of  causation 
that  shall  at  length  reach  us  in  some  far-off 
place  or  land;  or  if  he  is  about  to  save  a 
soul  in  China  he  may  start  with  one  of  us 
in  the  contribution  we  make  to  foreign 
missions.  Caesar  Augustus,  master  of  the 
world,  from  time  to  time  ordered  a  census 
to  be  taken  of  the  empire  that  he  might 

1:313 


know  its  resources  and  reap  from  it  a 
richer  harvest  of  taxes.  It  was  probably 
between  the  months  of  December  and 
March,  B.  C.  5-4,  that  such  a  census  was 
being  taken  in  the  province  of  Syria. 

In  accordance  with  ancient  Jewish  usage, 
all  citizens  repaired  to  the  tribe  and  vil- 
lage from  which  they  were  descended,  and 
were  there  enrolled.  In  the  town  of  Nazar- 
eth in  the  north  lived  Joseph,  a  village 
carpenter,  and  Mary,  his  espoused  wife, 
who  though  a  virgin  was  great  with  child, 
having  been  overshadowed  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  the  mystery  having  been  re- 
vealed to  her  and  her  betrothed  husband. 
They  were  both  descended  from  the  royal 
line  of  David,  and  therefore  to  Bethlehem 
they  must  go.  With  us  such  a  journey  of 
eighty  miles  would  mean  no  more  than 
stepping  on  a  railway  car  at  nine  o'clock 
in  the  morning  and  stepping  off  at  noon. 
But  with  them  it  meant  a  toilsome  journey 

1:323 


on  foot  of  several  days.  Slowly  they 
wended  their  way  southward,  led  on  by 
the  irresistible  hand  of  Caesar,  far  away 
on  his  throne.  The  ancient  Hebrew  proph- 
ecy of  Micah  and  the  imperial  decree  of 
Caesar  thus  marvelously  fitted  into  each 
other  and  worked  together.  Mary  must 
have  known  of  this  prophecy,  and  we 
know  not  with  what  a  sense  of  mystery 
and  fear  and  joy  she  drew  near  to  the  pre- 
dicted place  where  the  Messiah  was  to  be 
born. 

Bethlehem  sits  like  a  crown  on  its  rocky 
ridge.  At  length  its  walls  and  towers 
loomed  in  the  distance,  and  then  presently 
up  the  steep  road  climbed  the  carpenter 
and  his  espoused  wife  and  passed  through 
the  gate  into  the  village.  When  they  came 
to  the  inn,  it  was  already  crowded  with 
visitors,  driven  thither  by  the  decree  of 
Caesar  that  had  set  all  Palestine  in  com- 
motion. In  connection  with  the  inn,  gen- 

[333 


erally  the  central  space  of  its  four-square 
inclosure,  but  probably  in  this  case  a  cave 
in  the  limestone  rock,  was  a  stable,  or 
place  for  the  camels  and  horses  and  cattle 
of  the  guests.  Among  these  oriental  people 
it  was  (and  is)  no  uncommon  thing  for 
travelers,  when  the  chambers  of  the  inn 
were  fully  occupied,  to  make  a  bed  of 
straw  and  spend  the  night  in  this  place. 
In  this  stable,  possibly  the  very  cave 
where  now  stands  the  Church  of  the  Na- 
tivity, Mary  and  Joseph  found  lodgings 
for  the  night.  It  was  not  a  mark  of  degrada- 
tion or  social  inferiority  for  them  to  do 
this,  though  it  was  an  indication  of  their 
meager  means,  as  wealthy  visitors  would 
doubtless  have  found  better  accommoda- 
tions. 


1:343 


VIII.  €¥  ^i«tj 


N  that  cave  Mary  brought 
forth  her  first-born  son; 
and  as  there  appears  to 
have  been  no  woman's  hand 
there  to  minister  to  her, 
she  herself  wrapped  the 
new-born  babe  in  swaddling 
clothes;  and  as  there  was  no  other  cradle 
or  bed  to  receive  it,  she  laid  the  child  in 
the  trough  from  which  the  camels  were  fed. 
This  is  all  we  know  of  what  took  place  on 
that  memorable  night  from  which  the  his- 
tory of  the  Christian  world  is  now  dated. 
The  apocryphal  gospels,  legends  that  after- 
wards grew  up,  fill  the  chamber  with  su- 
pernal light  so  that  visitors  had  to  shade 
their  eyes  from  the  splendor  of  the  child; 
and  the  painters  portray  the  holy  child  and 
mother  with  halos  of  glory  around  their 
heads.  But  this  is  all  imagination  and  myth. 
Jesus  was  born  as  other  human  beings  are 
born,  and  looked  just  like  a  human  child. 


No  one  seeing  him  could  have  guessed  that 
a  unique  birth  had  ruptured  the  continuity 
of  nature  and  brought  a  divine  Man  into 
the  world.  There  was  no  glory  streaming 
from  his  person,  and  no  spectacular  dis- 
play of  pageantry  and  pomp  such  as  at- 
tended the  birth  of  a  Caesar.  The  Son  of 
Man  did  not  come  with  observation,  but 
stole  into  the  world  silently  and  unseen. 
If  we  could  have  gazed  upon  the  Christ- 
child  as  it  lay  in  its  manger,  we  would 
have  been  disappointed  and  thought  that 
nothing  extraordinary  had  happened.  But 
a  great  event  rarely  seems  great  at  the 
time;  long  centuries  may  elapse  before 
it  looms  into  view  and  is  seen  in  its  central 
place  as  the  axis  of  history.  Outward  size 
and  circumstance  do  not  measure  inward 
power  and  possibility.  God  brought  only  a 
child  into  the  world  that  night,  but  in  that 
Child  were  sheathed  ominipotent  wisdom 
and  mercy  and  might  to  save  the  world. 

1:363 


IX.  jl^o  l^oom  in  tlje  3|nn 


HERE  was  no  room  for 
them  in  the  inn."  And  so 
Jesus  came  into  a  world 
where  there  was  no  room  for 
.him  in  the  habitations  of 
,  men.  After  all  this  prepara- 
tion through  which  the  cen- 
turies grew  into  readiness  for  his  coming, 
after  all  these  types  and  prophecies,  sacri- 
fices and  symbols,  after  all  this  weary 
waiting  and  passionate  hope  and  all  these 
golden  dreams,  when  the  promised  One 
came  there  was  no  room  for  him  and  he  was 
not  wanted!  "He  came  unto  his  own,  and 
his  own  received  him  not."  Was  there  ever 
a  greater  and  sadder  anticlimax  and  a  more 
cruel  disappointment?  Let  us  admit  that 
there  may  have  been  no  fault  in  this  matter, 
no  lack  of  hospitality  in  the  keeper  or  the 
guests  of  the  inn,  as  the  village  was  over- 
crowded, and  the  fact  that  these  late  ar- 
rivals were  compelled  to  put  up  with  a 


31  ^onuerful  0^t 

place  out  in  the  enclosure,  possibly  a  cave, 
where  the  animals  were  kept,  was  no  in- 
tended incivility  or  uncommon  hardship. 
Nevertheless,  whatever  may  have  been 
the  reason,  the  fact  was  that  there  was  no 
room  for  Jesus  in  that  inn  the  first  night 
he  spent  in  this  world,  and  this  fact  was 
sadly  prophetic  of  his  reception  in  the 
world  he  came  to  save. 

There  were  few  places  where  he  did 
find  welcome:  generally  there  was  no  room 
for  him  even  in  places  where  he  had  the 
most  reason  and  right  to  expect  it.  And 
if  it  was  no  lack  of  hospitality  that  kept 
him  out  of  this  inn,  it  certainly  was  the 
lack  of  this  grace  and  the  positive  pres- 
ence of  hostility  that  in  after  life  excluded 
him  from  many  places  where  he  wanted  to 
be. 

Jesus  was  not  wanted  in  his  own  coun- 
try: Herod  tried  to  leave  no  room  for 
him  there.  He  was  not  wanted  in  his  own 

CSS] 


31  Wontttful  iliiglit 

town:  his  neighbors  tried  to  hurl  him 
down  a  cliff  to  his  death.  He  was  not 
wanted  in  his  own  church:  its  ministers 
and  doctors  of  divinity  fell  upon  him  in 
malignant  fury  and  at  last  crucified  him. 
Even  his  own  family  found  it  hard  to 
make  room  for  him  in  their  inner  circle.  1/ 
Small  room  was  there  in  this  evil  world 
for  this  pure  and  lowly  spirit.  Then  why 
did  he  come  to  it?  Because  he  so  loved  it 
that  he  gave  himself  for  it.  Small  room  do 
we  still  leave  for  Jesus  as  we  crowd  him 
out  of  our  hearts  and  lives  and  out  of  our 
social  order  and  civilization  with  our  sel- 
fishness and  sin.  Is  it  a  discouraging  fact 
that  there  is  so  little  room  for  Christ  in 
the  world?  Then  let  us  note  the  fact  that 
there  is  more  room  for  him  to-day  than 
ever  before,  and  this  room  is  ever  widening. 
How  much  that  inn  missed  by  not  hav- 
ing room  for  this  mother  and  her  babe! 
Its  finest  apartment  lost  a  glory  that  fell 


upon  the  manger  out  of  which  the  cattle 
were  fed.  How  much  shall  we  miss  if  we 
do  not  have  room  for  Christ  ?  There  is  one 
world  where  there  is  room  for  Jesus  and 
where  he  is  wanted:  heaven.  And  all  who 
are  like  him  shall  find  room  with  him  in 
its  many  mansions. 


X.  angel  ^ini^tin? 


ERUSALEM  and  Rome 
knew  nothing  of  this  event. 
The  High  Priest  offered 
,  the  evening  sacrifice  una- 
.  ware  that  it  was  rendered 
obsolete  by  the  coming  of 
the  true  Sacrifice,  and 
Caesar  slept  that  night  without  a  dream 
that  a  Rival  had  been  born  who  would  up- 
root his  empire  and  erect  a  worldwide  king- 
dom. Earth  was  unconscious  of  this  birth, 
but  heaven  knew  it.  There  was  holy  ecstacy 

[40] 


a  Wont^tttxd  iliig^it 

in  all  the  shining  ranks  above,  and  "  angels 
seem,  as  birds  new-come  in  spring,  to  have 
flown  hither  and  thither,  in  songful  mood, 
dipping  their  white  wings  into  our  atmos- 
phere, just  touching  the  earth  or  glancing 
along  its  surface,  as  sea  birds  skim  the 
surface  of  the  sea.** 

Around  all  the  events  of  the  birth  and 
ministry  of  Christ  there  are  the  flutter 
and  flash  of  angel  wings,  and  this  story- 
would  lose  much  of  its  music  and  charm 
if  it  were  stripped  of  its  angel  ministra- 
tion. The  Bible  is  full  of  angels.  They  ap- 
pear to  Zacharias  the  mother  of  John 
the  Baptist,  and  they  find  Mary  the  virgin 
mother,  as  a  beam  of  morning  light  finds 
a  white-leafed  flower,  and  reveal  the  mys- 
tery that  has  come  upon  her.  No  sooner 
is  the  infant  Jesus  laid  in  his  manger  than 
the  door  of  heaven  opens  and  there  comes 
trooping  forth  a  radiant  throng,  filling 
the  midnight  sky  with  splendor  and  pro- 


at  WoxiDttdil  0%^t 

claiming  to  earth  the  glad  tidings.  Angels 
ministered  to  Jesus  in  the  wilderness  and 
strengthened  him  in  the  garden.  More  than 
twelve  legions  of  angels  waited  to  do  his 
bidding  when  he  was  arrested.  Angels 
rolled  away  the  stone  from  his  tomb  and 
sat  by  the  empty  grave,  announcing  his 
resurrection  as  they  had  announced  his 
birth;  and  as  they  thronged  the  skies  at 
his  coming,  so  they  hovered  in  the  air 
at  his  going;  and  when  he  comes  again  he 
shall  come  in  his  glory  with  all  the  holy 
angels  with  him. 

These  angels  are  still  in  the  world  as  the 
ministers  of  God,  though  invisible  to 
mortal  eyes.  We  see  the  firefly  only  through 
the  little  luminous  section  of  its  flight,  but 
it  still  flies  on  after  it  ceases  to  be  visible. 
So  we  see  these  angels  only  through  that 
shining  section  of  their  path  in  which 
they  waited  on  Jesus;  but  they  are  still 
flying  through  the  world  as  invisible  spirits. 

1:423 


3^  Wiont}ttM  i^is^t 

The  angels  of  little  ones  are  always  before 
the  face  of  their  Father  in  heaven,  and  as 
they  bore  the  spirit  of  Lazarus  to  Abra- 
ham's bosom,  so  they  still  may  bear  de- 
parting spirits  up  the  shining  stairway  of 
the  stars  to  the  eternal  home.  We  know 
not  in  what  wide  ways  they  minister  to  us; 
how  there  is  a  rush  of  angel  wings  to  the 
cradle  of  every  new-born  babe;  how  they 
constantly  pitch  their  tents  around  us 
in  the  viewless  fields  of  air;  and  how  often 
they  bear  us  up  lest  we  dash  our  feet 
against  a  stone. 

How  little  we  know  of  the  world  in 
which  we  live!  We  weigh  its  rocks  and 
grind  them  up  and  melt  them  in  our 
crucibles;  we  fling  our  nets  through  all 
space  and  catch  the  stars;  and  when  we 
can  find  nothing  more  to  measure  and 
analyze  we  think  we  have  found  and  ex- 
plained all.  But  the  finest  and  best  things 
cannot  be  grasped  by  these  coarse  pro- 

1:433 


cesses.  Sunbeams  cannot  be  weighed  on 
hay-scales,  and  gorgeously-colored  bits  of 
cloud  cannot  be  caught  in  a  crucible. 
We  can  weigh  the  new-born  baby,  but 
not  the  mother's  love  for  her  child.  A 
telescope  cannot  see  an  angel,  though 
millions  of  them  may  be  flying  across  its 
field  of  vision.  There  are  more  things  in 
heaven  and  earth  than  are  dreamed  of 
in  our  philosophy.  In  our  blind  material- 
ism we  need  to  have  our  eyes  opened  that 
we  may  know  that  this  universe,  which 
often  seems  so  empty  and  dark  to  us,  is  a 
blazing  sea  of  spiritual  splendor  in  which 
burning  suns  float  as  black  specks  and 
which  is  thronged  with  troops  of  angels 
that  do  the  will  of  God  and  wait  on  us. 


[:443 


XI.  atngel^  anD  ^^tp^ttusi 


HE  Christ-child  was  born, 
and  now  the  problem  was 
to  get  the  wonderful  news 
out  into  the  world.  There 
were  no  newspapers  to  an- 
nounce it  in  startling  head- 
lines and  cry  it  out  upon 
the  morning  air,  and,  if  there  had  been, 
their  reporters  would  not  have  been  keen 
enough  to  discover  it  and  probably  would 
have  had  no  interest  in  it.  God  used  other 
means.  An  angel  came  from  heaven  to  pro- 
claim the  great  event  to  earth.  Where  shall 
he  begin,  what  human  ears  shall  first  have 
the  privilege  of  hearing  the  glad  tidings? 
Let  the  angel  go  to  Jerusalem,  we  would 
have  said,  and  call  upon  the  High  Priest  and 
first  take  him  into  his  confidence,  and  then 
let  him  go  to  the  Temple  and  stand  amidst 
the  splendors  of  that  holy  sanctuary  and 
announce  to  the  assembled  priests  and 
scribes  that  prophecy  had  been   fulfilled 

1:453 


and  their  long-expected  Messiah  had 
come.  Shall  not  some  respect  be  paid  to 
official  places  and  persons?  Has  not  God 
ordained  priests  and  presbyters  through 
whom  he  dispenses  his  grace  and  admin- 
isters his  kingdom? 

Yet  history  witnesses  that  at  times  few 
men  stand  in  God's  way  more  than  ec- 
clesiastics. They  are  rarely  the  men  that 
earliest  hear  a  new  message:  God  must 
usually  tell  it  to  some  one  else  first.  One 
of  the  most  startling  things  in  the  Bible 
is  the  fact  that  the  announcement  of  the 
birth  of  Christ  was  made,  not  to  priests, 
but  to  shepherds,  and  the  gospel  was  first 
preached,  not  in  a  church,  but  in  a  pasture 
field  where  there  were  more  sheep  than 
men  to  hear. 

What  a  rebuke  is  this  to  our  ecclesiasti- 
cal pretension  and  pride!  God  can  easily 
dispense  with  us,  and  may  pass  us  by  to 
speak  to  some  humbler  soul.  The  great 

[46] 


people  up  in  the  Temple  have  no  monopoly 
of  his  grace,  and  it  may  break  out  in  some 
wholly  unexpected  place.  The  gospel  is  no 
respecter  of  places  and  persons.  It  may  be 
preached  in  a  costly  church  or  stately 
cathedral,  but  it  is  equally  at  home  in  a 
country  school  house,  or  in  a  wooden 
tabernacle,  or  in  a  sheep  pasture.  In  sim- 
plicity and  catholicity  it  is  adapted  to  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  life.  It  has  the 
same  message  for  priest  and  people,  prince 
and  peasant,  scholar  and  shepherd,  and  all 
receive  from  it  an  equal  welcome  and 
blessing. 


1:473 


XII.  ^\)t  Concert  in  a  ^^ttp  pasture 


N  the  night  of  the  Nativity 
the  shepherds  were  in  the 
field  keeping  watch  over 
their  flocks,  for  those  faith- 
fully engaged  in  the  low- 
liest duties  may  receive  a 
splendid  visitation  from 
heaven.  The  night  did  not  seem  different 
from  other  nights.  The  skies  were  as  serene 
and  the  stars  burned  as  calm  as  in  all  the 
past.  The  shepherds  were  as  unconscious  of 
any  coming  wonder  as  the  sleeping  sheep 
that  lay  like  drifted  snow  on  the  ridges.  Yet 
the  heavens  were  strained  tense  with  ex- 
pectation and  were  on  the  point  of  being 
shattered  into  song.  Flocks  of  angels  were 
flying  downward  from  the  stars,  and  as 
their  white  wings  struck  earth's  atmosphere 
they  kindled  it  into  radiance  with  heavenly 
glory,  and  from  the  gallery  of  the  skies 
they  chanted  their  song,  accompanied 
with  all  the  golden  harps  and  deep-toned 

US] 


a  MonDerful  jpig^t 

organ  pipes  of  the  celestial  choir.  Never 
before  or  since  was  such  a  concert  heard 
in  this  world,  and  yet  only  shepherds  and 
sheep  were  present  to  hear  it.  The  en- 
circling hills  were  the  grand  amphitheater 
in  which  it  was  rendered,  the  grassy 
slopes  were  the  only  seats,  and  there  were 
no  tickets  of  admission,  but,  like  the  gospel 
itself,  it  was  given  without  money  and 
without  price.  Musical  artists  are  often 
sensitive  and  critical  and  exclusive  people, 
chary  of  a  free  exercise  of  their  gifts  and 
particular  as  to  their  audience,  but  angels 
will  sing  for  anybody. 

The  simple-minded  shepherds  were  sore 
afraid  at  this  outburst  of  heavenly  music, 
as  wiser  people  would  have  been.  An  angel 
voice  sang  the  solo: 

Be  not  afraid;  for  behold,  I  bring  you 
good  tidings  of  great  joy  which  shall  be 
to  all  the  people:  for  there  is  born  to  you 
this  day  in  the  city  of  David  a  Saviour, 

n49D 


a  Wontttinl  jpig^t 

which  is  Christ  the  Lord.  And  this  shall 
be  a  sign  unto  you;  Ye  shall  find  a  babe 
wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes,  and  lying 
in  a  manger. 

"Be  not  afraid!"  Sin  has  wrought  such 
disorder  in  this  world  that  the  thought 
of  spirit  visitors  frightens  us  and  heaven 
itself  must  not  come  too  near.  There  are 
great  reasons  for  fear  in  this  darkened 
world,  but  the  coming  of  Jesus  into  it  is 
not  one  of  them.  His  only  mission  is  to 
release  us  from  the  bondage  and  bitter- 
ness of  sin  and  let  us  out  into  the  glorious 
liberty  and  joy  of  the  sons  of  God.  And 
Christ  has  in  a  marvelous  degree  cast 
fear  out  of  the  world  and  poured  joy 
through  all  its  channels,  as  the  sun  dis- 
perses the  night  and  spills  its  splendor 
over  hills  and  vales. 

The  good  tidings  announced  the  birth 
of  a  Saviour,  and  this  is  the  best  news  this 
sin-stricken  world  can  hear,  for  sin  is  the 


3i  Wont^tttnl  jpigljc 

root  of  all  our  fear  and  misery.  Back  of 
every  bitter  tear  lies  a  guilty  thought 
or  deed.  This  connection  is  often  visible 
upon  the  surface  and  stabs  us  in  the  face, 
and  then  it  may  lie  hidden  under  many 
generations,  but  it  is  always  there.  Sin 
is  the  disease  that  poisons  all  our  blood 
and  blights  our  physical  and  moral  and 
spiritual  health  and  happiness.  Cut  this 
ugly  tree  up  by  the  roots  and  all  its  scarlet 
fruits  and  poisonous  leaves  will  wither; 
cure  this  disease  and  our  human  world 
will  be  transformed  into  a  new  Paradise 
of  God.  A  Saviour  is  the  supreme  need  of 
the  world,  and  his  birth  was  news  good 
enough  to  bring  singing  angels  to  earth 
and  fill  all  the  centuries  with  song. 

Definite  directions  were  given  for  find- 
ing the  new-born  Saviour  in  the  city  of 
David,  wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes  and 
lying  in  the  manger.  The  angelic  message 
was  not  simply  a  song  in  the  air,  a  halo 


of  celestial  light,  a  splendid  but  fading 
vision,  but  it  bound  itself  down  to  definite 
places  and  circumstances  and  left  some- 
thing solid.  Again  we  note  that  this  thing 
was  not  done  in  a  corner  and  is  not  afraid 
of  facts.  Jesus  was  a  true  human  child  and 
took  upon  him  our  form  down  to  his  in- 
fant clothes.  The  Christ  is  a  great  wonder 
in  his  divine  personality,  ever  transcend- 
ing our  utmost  comprehension,  but  we 
can  understand  his  swaddling  bands.  Chris- 
tianity is  not  all  mystery,  but  it  also  comes 
down  close  around  us  and  embodies  itself 
in  many  plain  facts  and  duties.  "Ye  shall 
find  the  babe.**  The  shepherds  were  not 
left  to  wander  around  in  uncertainty,  but 
sent  direct  to  the  place.  Christ  is  not  hid- 
den from  us,  clear  directions  point  out 
the  place  where  he  is,  and  every  soul  that 
seeks  him  shall  find  him. 

The     angel    solo     broke    out     into     a 
heavenly  chorus  which  gave  a  broad  in- 

1:523 


a  Wonderful  0^U 

terpretation  of  the  meaning  of  the  birth  of 
Christ: 

Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
And    on    earth    peace    among    men    in 
whom  he  is  well  pleased. 

This  chorus  first  acribes  glory  to  God, 
for  all  things  good  and  beautiful  come  from 
him  and  express  his  glory,  as  all  rays  of 
daylight  shoot  from  the  sun  and  are  its 
splintered  splendor.  The  gift  of  Christ 
manifests  the  glory  of  God  in  that  it  dis- 
plays the  divine  wisdom  in  devising  the 
plan  of  salvation,  the  divine  power  in 
executing  it,  and  the  divine  love  as  its 
mighty  motive.  The  glory  of  God,  that 
streams  through  the  heavens  as  through 
a  dome  of  many-colored  glass,  is  concen- 
trated and  burns  with  the  interest  bright- 
ness in  the  person  of  his  Son. 

The  chorus  next  pronounces  peace  upon 
men.  Divine  glory  and  human  good  will 
are  related  as  cause  and  effect.  When  men 


get  right  with  God  they  at  once  get  right 
with  one  another,  as  the  center  of  a  circle, 
when  truly  located,  pulls  every  point  on 
the  circumference  into  its  proper  place 
in  the  curve;  but  when  men  are  at  variance 
with  God  they  are  at  enmity  among  them- 
selves. Divine  glory  is  the  sun  shining  in 
the  heavens;  human  good  will  is  a  garden 
and  orchard  all  abloom  with  flowers  and 
laden  with  fruit.  As  the  glory  of  the  sun  is 
transformed  into  rosy  buds  and  sweet 
fruit,  so  is  the  glory  of  God  transformed 
into  human  good  will.  The  glory  of  God 
and  the  peace  of  men  are  never  in  antago- 
nism, but  are  always  complementary  and 
harmonious,  they  are  the  two  sides  of 
the  same  gospel,  two  parts  of  the  same 
song.  They  cannot  be  separated  and  must 
go  together;  in  glorifying  God  we  make 
peace  among  men,  and  in  making  peace 
among  men  we  glorify  God. 

ns43 


XIII.  W^t  iFtot  Wi^itota  to  llBntiUljem 


HE  angels*  song  died  away 
in  the  solemn  silence,  and 
the  shepherds  were  left 
alone.  It  was  a  critical 
hour  with  them.  Would 
they  follow  this  vision  and 
turn  it  into  victory,  or 
would  they  let  it  vanish  with  the  last  echo 
of  the  song  and  relapse  into  the  old  dull 
routine?  No,  they  did  not  let  it  pass,  and 
life  was  never  the  same  to  them  again.  "Let 
us  now  go,'*  they  said,  "even  unto  Bethle- 
hem, and  see  this  thing  which  is  come  to 
pass,  which  the  Lord  hath  made  known 
unto  us."  They  translated  vision  into  ac- 
tion and  presently  were  climbing  the  rocky 
slope  to  Bethlehem.  Had  these  shepherds 
not  followed  up  the  message  their  knowl- 
edge of  their  Messiah  would  have  imme- 
diately been  cut  short.  We  hear  divine  mes- 
sages and  see  heavenly  visions  enough,  but 
too  often  we  let  them  fade  into  forgetfulness 

cssn 


and  pass  into  nothingness.  A  message  does 
us  no  good  until  it  becomes  action,  the 
grandest  vision  that  ever  swept  through 
our  brain  or  illuminated  our  sky  leaves  no 
vestige  of  worth  unless  it  is  turned  into 
conduct  and  character.  "Let  us  now  go  and 
see  this  thing."  We  do  not  know  Christ 
until  we  see  him  as  our  Saviour.  Seeing 
is  believing,  this  is  the  simplicity  of  faith, 
and  when  we  see  Christ  through  the  direct 
vision  and  personal  experience  of  faith  and 
obedience  we  are  transfigured  into  his 
likeness. 

"And  they  came  with  haste,  and  found 
both  Mary  and  Joseph,  and  the  babe 
lying  in  the  manger."  Were  they  dis- 
appointed at  the  humble  mother,  wife  of  a 
workingman,  and  at  the  manger  cradle? 
These  did  not  match  the  desire  and  ex- 
pectation of  the  Jews.  They  had  long 
cherished  the  passionate  hope  of  an  earthly 
prince  who  would  come  wearing  purple 


robes  and  marshaling  armies  to  trample 
hated  oppressors  under  feet  and  make 
Jerusalem  the  mistress  of  the  world. 
They  would  have  said  that  the  Christ 
should  be  born  in  a  palace  and  laid  on 
softest  down  and  covered  with  silken 
robes.  What  a  surprise  was  this  manger  to 
their  thoughts  and  shock  to  their  feelings. 
Were  ever  deep-seated,  long-cherished 
hopes  treated  with  more  cruel  irony?  But 
God's  ways  are  not  as  our  ways.  Christ 
was  brought  into  the  world  at  the  very 
point  where  he  could  get  the  deepest 
strongest  hold  upon  it  and  most  powerfully 
swing  it  starward  from  the  dust.  He  was 
born  among  neither  the  very  rich  nor  the 
very  poor,  but  in  the  great  middle  class  at 
the  center  of  gravity  of  humanity,  by 
lifting  which  he  would  lift  the  world.  Had 
he  come  as  a  pampered  child  of  wealth 
he  would  never  have  got  hold  of  the  great 
heart  of  humanity;  but  he  came  as  one  of 


a  ^ontierful  M^^t 

the  people,  knitting  himself  into  humble 
relations,  growing  up  among  plain  folk 
of  the  countryside  and  toiling  as  a  common 
workingman.  And  so  when  he  began  to 
preach  the  common  people  heard  him 
gladly. 

Promise  was  exactly  matched  by  ful- 
fillment. "Ye  shall  find  a  babe,"  was  the 
promise  of  the  angel,  and  now  the  record 
reads,  "And  they  found  the  babe."  When 
did  God  ever  lead  us  to  expect  anything 
and  then  disappoint  us?  He  gave  us  thirst 
that  urges  us  to  find  water,  and  matching 
this  need  he  has  created  bubbling  springs 
and  sparkling  streams.  He  gave  us  hunger 
that  seeks  bread,  and  it  finds  fields  of 
golden  grain  and  orchards  of  rosy  fruit. 
He  gave  us  minds  that  seek  truth,  and 
they  find  it;  he  gave  us  a  craving  for  love, 
and  heart  matches  heart.  He  set  eternity 
in  our  hearts  and  gave  us  deep  instincts 
that  reach  after  the  Infinite,  hearts  that 

i:s8  3 


cry,  "Shew,  us  the  Father  and  it  sufficeth 
us."  Shall  all  lower  needs  be  satisfied  and 
this  supreme  search  and  cry  of  the  soul 
be  disappointed  and  mocked?  "And  they 
found  the  babe,"  is  the  answer  to  this  need 
and  promise.  God  sends  us  with  all  our 
deep  needs  and  mysterious  longings  to 
that  cradle  in  Bethlehem,  where  they  will 
be  exactly  and  fully  matched  and  satisfied. 
He  that  hath  seen  this  Child  hath  seen  the 
Father. 

The  shepherds,  having  seen  for  them- 
selves, immediately  began  to  make  known 
abroad  the  saying  which  was  told  them 
concerning  the  Child.  The  gospel  is  a 
social  and  expansive  blessing  and  cannot 
be  shut  up  in  the  individual  heart.  We 
are  saved  to  serve,  we  are  told  the  good 
news  that  we  may  tell  it  to  others,  we 
get  it  that  we  may  give  it.  And  the  more 
we  give  it  the  more  we  get  it,  for  this  bread 
multiplies  in  our  own  hands  as  we  share 

ns93 


a  WonDttfnl  0^\)t 

it  with  others,  as  did  the  loaves  beside 
the  Galilean  sea.  Great  souls  have  ever 
grown  rich  by  the  lavish  prodigality  with 
which  they  bestowed  their  gifts  on  others, 
and  because  Jesus  gave  himself  God  hath 
highly  exalted  him. 

First  angels  and  then  shepherds:  how 
startling  the  contrast.  Jesus  has  deep  af- 
finities with  both:  on  his  divine  side  he  is 
related  to  heaven,  and  on  his  human  side 
he  is  related  to  earth.  And  the  first  men 
he  drew  to  his  side  were  shepherds,  rep- 
resentatives of  the  common  people.  He 
did  not  come  as  a  member  of  any  special 
class,  especially  of  the  upper  class.  No 
one  can  ever  save  the  world  by  winning 
over  the  rich  and  the  great.  Society  can- 
not be  lifted  from  the  top.  Whoever  would 
raise  the  level  of  society  must  get  his  lever 
under  its  foundation  stones.  Taking  hold 
of  the  carved  cornice  will  tear  the  roof 
ofF  and  lift  it   away  from   the  building, 

1601 


a  (IKKontintul  Jiigljt 

but  raising  the  lowest  stone  will  also  push 
up  the  spire's  gilded  point.  He  who  ele- 
vates the  peasant  will  also  in  time  elevate 
the  prince.  Jesus  did  not  begin  with  Caesar, 
but  with  shepherds,  and  then  in  three 
hundred  years  a  Christian  Caesar  sat  on 
the  throne. 

The  gospel  still  works  from  beneath; 
going  down  into  the  slums  of  Christian 
cities;  working  among  the  poor  and  de- 
graded of  heathen  lands;  and  seeking  the 
lowest  tribes  of  men  from  whom  have  been 
defaced  almost  the  last  vestige  of  hu- 
manity and  restoring  them  to  the  image 
of  God.  Christ  is  saving  the  world  as  a 
whole.  He  is  not  slicing  the  loaf  of  society 
horizontally,  cutting  off  the  upper  crust, 
but  he  is  slicing  it  vertically  from  top  to 
bottom. 

How  wonderful  is  the  simplicity  and 
beauty  of  this  gospel  that  shepherds  are 
drawn  by  it.  It  takes  some  brain  to  read 

i:6i3 


Plato.  Shepherds  would  not  get  much  out 
of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  or  a  child  out  of 
Shakespeare,  or  a  sorrowing  heart  out  of 
Emerson.  But  every  one  can  get  milk 
and  honey  for  his  soul  out  of  the  gospel 
of  Jesus.  His  wonderful  words  of  life  have 
the  same  sweetness  and  saving  power  for 
shepherd  and  scholar,  peasant  and  prince. 
However  lowly  and  unlettered  one  may 
be  there  is  wide  room  for  him  around  the 
manger  of  this  Child. 


XIV.  V!^\)t  ^m  anti  t\)t  Wisit  ^m 

HE  birth  of  Jesus  created  a 
new  center  for  the  world 
and  set  heaven  and  earth 
revolving  around  his  cradle. 
All  things  began  to  gravi- 
tate towards  him  as  by  a 
new  and  more  powerful  at- 
traction. Angels  sang,  shepherds  wondered, 

1:623 


M 

1 

a  li^onDetful  0qf)t 

a  new  star  glittered  upon  the  blazing  cur- 
tain of  the  night,  and  wise  men  came  from 
afar  to  worship  him.  These  wise  men  were 
Persian  priests,  scholars,  scientists,  as- 
trologers, students  of  the  stars.  Rumors  of 
a  coming  King  or  Saviour  were  wide- 
spread in  the  ancient  world  and  doubtless 
had  reached  these  worshipers  of  the  sun 
to  whom  the  stars  were  embodiments  of 
deity.  A  new  star  in  their  sky,  whatever 
it  may  have  been,  would  instantly  at- 
attract  their  attention  and  receive  from 
them  a  religious  interpretation.  The  celes- 
tial messenger  was  a  fulfillment  of  their 
hope  and  a  guide  to  their  feet.  They  were 
obedient  to  the  heavenly  vision,  and  across 
long  burning  stretches  of  desert  sand  they 
came  and  appeared  in  Jerusalem  with 
their  inquiry  concerning  the  new-born 
King  of  the  Jews. 

They  were  therefore  broad-minded  men 
whose  horizon  was  wider  than  their  own 

I632 


Si  OTlonDerful  jpig^t 

deserts,  or  they  never  would  have  over- 
leaped their  national  piety  and  patriotism 
and  prejudice  into  search  and  reverence 
for  a  Jewish  king.  But  something  told 
them  that  the  new  King,  though  born  a 
Jew,  was  of  universal  interest  and  was 
more  than  human;  they  forefelt  his  divin- 
ity. Therefore  they  were  come  to  the  King, 
not  to  gratify  their  curiosity,  not  to  specu- 
late and  debate  and  frame  a  new  creed, 
but  to  worship  him.  There  was  no  war 
between  the  science  and  the  theology  of 
these  wise  men.  Their  science  did  not  kill 
their  religion,  and  their  religion  did  not 
strangle  their  science.  The  stars,  accord- 
ing to  their  simple-minded  way  of  think- 
ing, did  not  crowd  God  out  of  his  universe. 
Knowledge  and  reverence  made  one  music 
in  their  minds  as  both  science  and  faith 
grew  from  more  to  more. 

A  religion  that  could  not  stand  the  most 
searching  and  pitiless  light  of  scholarship 

1:643 


could  not  live.  Science  kills  pagan  faiths 
as  with  a  stroke  of  lightning.  But  the 
gospel  lives,  because  wise  men  go  to  Beth- 
lehem and  find  there,  not  fiction,  but  fact. 
It  welcomes  and  inspires  the  profoundest 
science  and  philosophy.  God  in  his  Word 
is  not  afraid  of  God  in  his  works.  The 
tallest  intellects  in  all  these  centuries 
have  bowed  at  the  side  of  this  manger. 


XV.  a  iFrigl)teneD  Mn% 


HE  inquiry  of  the  wise 
men  startled  Jerusalem 
and  frightened  Herod.  The 
proud  metropolis  had  not 
yet  heard  the  news.  The 
immortal  honor  of  having 
given  birth  to  the  Christ 
had  been  denied  to  her  haughty  brow  and 
had  become  humble  Bethlehem's  imperish- 
able crown.     The  very  name  of  king  gave 

1652 


■-■iii"r»-"'— f '<~v, 


ai  l^onDrrful  0^^t 

Herod  a  terrible  shock.  He  was  a  usurper 
steeped  in  crime  and  was  ever  trembling  on 
his  throne.  No  hunted,  white-faced,  Rus- 
sian Czar  ever  feared  nihilist^s  bomb  more 
than  he  feared  rebellion's  revolt  and  as- 
sassin's knife.  Rebel  after  rebel  he  had 
crushed  into  spattered  brains  and  blood, 
and  here  was  rumor  of  another  Rival  born 
under  the  shadow  of  his  throne.  Herod 
was  troubled  and  his  terror  sent  a  strange 
wave  and  shudder  of  fear  through  the 
city.  So  the  same  gospel  that  made  angels 
sing  and  wise  men  worship  and  started 
good  news  out  over  the  world,  created 
consternation  and  trouble  up  in  Herod's 
palace  and  in  his  city.  Christ  came  to  give 
peace  and  joy,  but  his  gospel  is  a  sword 
to  some.  The  good  man's  presence  is 
always  the  bad  man's  condemnation  and 
stirs  hatred  in  his  heart.  Every  good  in- 
fluence that  falls  upon  us,  according  as 
we  use  it,  brings  either  more  joy  or  trouble, 

1:663 


and  the  gospel  itself  is  either  a  savor  of 
life  unto  life,  or  of  death  unto  death. 


XVI.  Sin  ^Impotnxt  2r>es?tro^er 

EROD  took  swift  and 
thorough  measures,  as  he 
thought,  to  crush  his  new 
rival.  He  called  the  priests 
into  his  counsel  and  de- 
manded to  know  where 
the  Christ  should  be  born. 
Too  often  has  the  priest  been  subject  to 
the  beck  and  call  of  the  king.  Bad  men 
will  use  the  church  for  their  own  evil  pur- 
poses when  they  can,  and  will  then  grow 
condescending  and  complaisant  towards 
the  minister  and  liberal  in  their  gifts. 
We  must  be  ready  to  receive  and  help  any 
man,  but  we  must  beware  of  men  that 
push  their  way  into  the  church  for  sinister 
ends.  The  church  is  no  man's  tool,  and 

1:673 


a  Monuerful  jpigtit 

when  it  is  thus  prostituted  its  power  and 
glory  are  gone. 

The  priests  knew  their  Bibles  and,  in 
answer  to  Herod's  question,  put  their 
finger  on  the  very  text  and  town.  They 
knew  where  Christ  was  to  be  born,  but 
they  did  not  know  Christ  when  he  was 
born.  We  may  have  an  exhaustive  knowl- 
edge of  the  letter  of  the  Bible  and  yet  not 
know  its  spirit;  we  may  know  many 
things  about  Christ  and  yet  not  know 
Christ. 

Herod,  having  gained  knowledge  of 
Christ,  immediately  turned  it  against 
Christ.  He  sent  searchers  after  the  child, 
falsely  and  wickedly  pretending  that  he 
also  wanted  to  come  and  worship  him. 
There  is  no  truth,  or  means  of  good,  or 
gift  of  God  so  holy  and  blessed  that  men 
will  not  turn  it  to  evil  ends.  Afterward 
Herod,  in  blind  but  impotent  rage,  sent 
soldiers  and  thrust  a  sword  through  every 

1:683 


Si  Wonttttul  ipigtjt 

cradle  in  Bethlehem;  but  the  Child, 
sheathed  in  omnipotence,  had  escaped, 
and  Herod  could  sooner  have  crushed  the 
earth  flat  than  have  hurt  a  hair  of  his 
head. 

Herod  was  the  forerunner  of  a  long  line 
of  enemies  who  have  endeavored  to  kill 
this  Child.  Pagan  Rome  poured  the  fires 
of  ten  dreadful  persecutions  on  the  heads 
of  his  followers,  but  they  could  not  ex- 
tinguish his  name  in  fire  and  blood.  Often 
have  the  fires  of  martyrdom  been  kindled 
around  his  disciples,  but  they  have  stood 
faithful  to  him.  Skeptical  scholarship  has 
tried  to  reduce  his  gospel  to  a  fable  and 
even  to  resolve  Jesus  himself  into  a  myth, 
but  as  soon  could  it  dissolve  the  rocky 
ledge  of  Bethlehem  into  vapor  and  cloud- 
And  did  not  Voltaire  prophecy  in  1760 
that  ere  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Christianity  would  disappear  from  the 
earth?  Many  are  the  authors  and  books 

1:693 


0  l^onoerful  j^ig^t 

that  have  thought  to  make  an  end  of 
Jesus,  but  he  still  lives  the  same  yesterday 
and  to-day.  And  does  not  unbelief  and 
unfaithfulness  in  our  hearts  also  try  to 
strangle  this  Child?  Every  evil  thought 
we  cherish  and  every  evil  deed  we  do  are 
so  many  swords  we  thrust  into  his  cradle. 
Herod  has  a  long  and  numerous  progeny, 
and  we  may  find  them  close  to  our  own 
door  and  even  in  our  own  hearts. 

The  star  appears  to  have  been  invisible 
to  the  wise  men  while  they  were  in  Jeru- 
salem— in  that  guilty  city,  which  in  its 
pride  thought  it  had  a  monopoly  of  divine 
favor,  the  stars  of  faith  were  eclipsed  by  a 
worldly  spirit — but  when  they  emerged 
from  the  city  the  star  once  more  led  them 
on  and  stood  over  where  the  young  Child 
was.  God  has  put  many  stars  in  our  sky 
to  lead  us  on  to  Christ.  The  stars  them- 
selves are  as  vocal  with  divine  messages 
as  though  every  one  of  them  were  a  golden 

1:703 


bell  hung  in  the  dome  of  the  night  to  ring 
out  some  good  news  from  God.  The  Bible 
is  a  great  constellation  in  which  every 
promise  and  precept  is  a  star,  and  all  its 
stars  stand  over  Christ.  All  the  Christian 
centuries  are  starred  with  events  and 
achievements  that  point  to  Christ  as  King. 


XVII.  e>plmtJiD  aiftsf 

ND  they  came  into  the 
house  and  saw  the  young 
child  with  Mary  his  mother; 
and  they  fell  down  and  wor- 
shipped him;  and  opening 
their  treasures  they  offered 
unto  him  gifts,  gold  and 
frankincense  and  myrrh."  Is  there  any- 
thing more  beautiful  in  the  Bible,  or  in  all 
literature?  The  imagination  of  painter  or 
poet  may  well  kindle  at  the  scene.  There 
are  the  wondering  mother,  the  worshiping 

C7O 


a  WonHtttal  ipigjt 

wise  men  bowing  down,  the  shining  fra- 
grant gifts,  and  in  the  midst,  as  the  center 
and  glory  of  it  all,  the  young  Child.  This 
Child,  which  even  in  its  infancy  subordin- 
ates mother  and  wise  men  and  gold  to 
itself,  is  indeed  a  King.  Worship  is  the 
expression  of  reverence,  and  reverence  is 
the  root  of  all  worth  and  divineness  in 
life.  The  human  soul  is  a  poor  and  pitiful 
fragment  until  it  is  completed  and  crowned 
with  worship,  a  lost  child  until  it  finds  its 
Father.  The  wise  men  found  a  King  to 
worship;  they  were  not  following  a  false 
guide  across  weary  wastes  into  nothing- 
ness. Our  instinct  of  worship  is  not  false, 
but  is  true  and  is  matched  with  its  ap- 
propriate satisfaction.  Christ  completes 
our  human  childhood  with  divine  Father- 
hood. He  that  hath  seen  him  hath  seen  the 
father. 

These  Persian  scholars  were  forerunners 
of  other  wise  men  going  to  Bethlehem. 

1:723 


at  OTonDerful  j^isljt 

Through  all  the  Christian  centuries  men 
of  genius  have  been  laying  their  most 
precious  gifts  at  the  feet  of  Christ.  Colum- 
bus had  no  sooner  set  foot  on  a  new  shore 
than  he  named  it  San  Salvador,  Holy- 
Saviour;  and  thus  he  laid  his  great  dis- 
covery, America,  at  the  feet  of  Jesus. 
Leonardo  da  Vinci  swept  the  golden  gob- 
lets from  the  table  of  his  "Last  Supper'* 
because  he  feared  their  splendor  would 
distract  attention  from  and  dim  the  glory 
of  the  Master  himself.  The  hand  that 
rounded  St.  Peter's  dome  reared  it  in 
adoration  to  Christ,  and  Raphael  in  paint- 
ing the  Transfiguration  laid  his  master- 
piece at  the  feet  of  this  Child.  Mozart 
there  laid  his  symphonies,  and  Beethoven 
the  works  of  his  colossal  genius.  Shake- 
speare, "with  the  best  brain  in  six  thou- 
sand years,"  who  has  poured  the  many- 
colored  splendors  of  his  imagination  over 
all  our  life,  wrote  in  his  will :  "  I  commend 

C733 


Si  ^onDerful  ipig^t 

my  soul  into  the  hands  of  God  my  Creator, 
hoping  and  assuredly  believing,  through 
the  only  merits  of  Jesus  Christ  my  Saviour, 
to  be  made  partaker  of  life  everlasting." 
Tennyson  begins  his  In  Memoriam,  in  the 
judgment  of  many  the  superbest  literary 
blossom  of  the  nineteenth  century,  with 
the  invocation,  "Strong  Son  of  God,  im- 
mortal Love." 

Though  Jesus  wrote  no  book  himself  and 
never  wrote  any  recorded  thing  except 
a  few  words  in  the  sand  which  some  pass- 
ing breeze  or  foot  quickly  obliterated,  yet 
out  of  him  have  grown  vast  forests  of  lit- 
erature. It  would  tear  great  gaps  in  the 
shelves  of  any  library  and  leave  the  re- 
maining volumes  spotted  with  blank  spaces 
if  all  the  books  about  him  and  references 
to  him  were  removed.  A  thousand  books 
have  been  written  about  Lincoln  and 
eighty  thousand  about  Napoleon,  but  if 
all  the  books  that  were  ever  written  about 


2i  Won\}txtnl  jpigijt 

Lincoln  and  Washington  and  Napoleon 
and  Caesar  were  piled  up  in  one  heap  it 
would  look  small  beside  the  mountain  of 
books  that  have  been  written  about  Jesus 
Christ.  Not  only  have  the  writers  written 
about  him  above  every  other  figure  in 
history,  but  in  like  degree  the  artists  have 
painted  him  and  the  musicians  have  sung 
about  him.  He  is  the  most  fertile  theme 
of  all  literature  and  art,  and  the  gifts 
that  genius  have  heaped  about  his  feet 
are  an  incomparable  testimony  to  the  ado- 
ration that  is  paid  to  him. 

About  the  first  use  to  which  any  notable 
invention  is  put  is  to  spread  the  gospel 
of  Jesus.  The  very  first  book  printed  on  a 
printing  press  was  the  Bible,  and  this 
wonderful  and  perhaps  greatest  human 
invention  has  been  busier  printing  this 
book  than  any  other  to  this  day  and  mul- 
tiplies its  copies  by  the  hundred  million 
over  the  world.  The  newspaper  is  a  mighty 

1:753 


at  Wonnttfnl  Jpigtit 

means  of  spreading  his  principles.  The 
railway  and  steamship  carry  his  gospel, 
and  the  airship  gives  wings  to  the  same 
good  news.  Telegraph  and  telephone  flash 
it,  and  wireless  waves  set  the  ether  over 
whole  continents  and  oceans  aquiver  with 
the  messages  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  sewing 
machine  sews  for  him,  the  typewriter 
writes  for  him,  and  even  battle  ships  and 
bayonets  may  fight  for  him.  Sooner  or 
later  every  inventor  must  lay  his  magic 
machine  at  his  feet.  For  him  the  states- 
man legislates,  the  scientist  investigates, 
the  author  writes,  the  artist  paints  and  the 
singer  sings.  In  an  increasing  degree  Jesus 
is  drawing  all  men  into  his  service,  and 
they  are  laying  their  treasures  at  his  feet. 
The  gold  of  the  wise  men  was  only  the 
first  gleam  of  the  shining  heaps  of  wealth 
that  his  followers  are  now  piling  on  the 
altar  of  his  service.  This  process  will  go  on 
until  the  whole  world  will  lie  at  his  feet. 


Every  generation  sends  a  more  numerous 
company  to  Bethlehem.  With  every  cen- 
tury worshipers  arrive  from  more  distant 
lands.  From  every  quarter  of  the  cir- 
cumference of  the  globe  paths  now  run  to 
the  manger  of  this  Child,  worn  deep  by 
millions  of  feet.  The  nations  are  beginning 
to  come.  By  and  by  these  converging  paths 
will  be  crowded  and  all  the  ends  of  the 
earth  shall  bring  their  gold  and  shall  wor- 
ship at  his  feet. 

What  is  the  explanation  of  the  mighty, 
worldwide,  attractive  power  of  this  Child? 
There  is  only  one  adequate  explanation: 
"He  shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins." 
The  world  is  tired  of  men  who  come  to 
save  it  with  programmes  only  an  inch 
long;  who  have  nothing  better  to  propose 
than  longer  laws  and  cleaner  sanitation; 
who,  unmindful  of  the  experiment  in 
Eden,  would  have  us  believe  that  if  we 
were  only   placed   in    a   pleasant  garden 

1:773 


j9  WlottDerful  jpigl^t 

where  we  had  plenty  to  eat  and  little  to 
do  we  would  all  be  good.  The  weary  world 
wants  one  who  can  go  to  the  root  of  its 
unrest,  and  it  is  finding  out  that  this  can 
be  done  by  him  who  is  mighty  to  save 
people  from  their  sins.  All  who  put  their 
trust  in  him  are  blessed  with  purity  and 
peace.  In  this  great  world,  lost  in  sin  and 
beaten  upon  by  infinite  mystery,  there  is 
only  one  voice  that  comes  like  music  across 
our  life  with  power  to  cleanse  and  comfort 
us;  and  this  is  the  Voice  whose  infant  cry 
was  first  heard  in  Bethlehem.  Let  us  now 
go  even  unto  Bethlehem  while  the  song 
is  in  the  air  and  see  this  Child  and  worship 
at  his  feet. 


n783 


XVIII.  ^30  a  €\)i\^  tl\t  Wtsit  CljrfettttafiJ 
(Sift  to  t^t  Wotli}! 

HEN  we  come  to  think  of 
it,  does  not  a  child  seem 
an  insignificant  and  disap- 
pointing gift  for  God  to 
make  to  the  world?  After 
so  long  preparation  and  so 
great  promises  and  hopes, 
would  we  not  have  expected  some  greater 
and  more  wonderful  gift?  But  a  child  is  so 
common;  millions  are  born  every  month; 
there  is  nothing  unique  and  wonderful 
about  a  child.  Why  did  God  not  rather 
give  some  invention  or  discovery  or  piece 
of  knowledge  that  would  revolutionize  and 
bless  the  world?  Would  he  not  have  done 
enormously  more  for  mankind  if  in  the 
first  century  of  our  era  he  had  given  them 
the  printing  press,  or  the  steam  engine, 
or  the  electric  light?  May  there  not  yet 
be  waiting  for  us  some  invention  or  knowl- 
edge that  will  work  wonders  beyond  any- 

1:793 


ai  MonDnful  jpigtit 

thing  we  have  dreamed  and  shower  ma- 
terial comforts  on  the  world  ? 

This  thought  grows  out  of  our  blind 
materialism  which  leads  us  to  think  that 
matter  is  the  master  of  mind,  circumstance 
more  important  than  character  and  the 
things  of  the  body  than  the  things  of  the 
spirit.  But  material  improvements  do  not 
necessarily  improve  men.  The  locomotive 
has  little  relation  to  character.  It  picks 
a  man  up  at  one  point  and  drops  him  at 
another  the  same  man  he  was.  If  he  is 
selfish  and  wicked  at  the  beginning  of  the 
journey,  he  is  just  as  selfish  and  wicked 
at  its  end.  It  is  a  simple  fact  that  all  our 
material  progress  works  little  improve- 
ment in  morals.  At  the  hour  Christ  was 
born  Rome  had  an  amazing  material 
civilization,  blazing  with  splendor,  but 
all  the  more  rapidly  was  it  rotting  at  the 
core. 

But  a  child  has  in  it  the  possibility  of 


growth  and  of  imparting  regenerating 
ideas  and  a  new  life  to  the  world.  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  did  not  give  any  money  or 
material  gift  to  the  world,  but  he  gave  it 
scientific  ideas  and  a  scientific  spirit,  and 
in  giving  it  this  he  raised  the  intellectual 
level  of  the  world  and  gave  it  the  power  of 
making  millions  of  money.  Shakespeare 
gave  the  world  no  new  machine,  but  he 
opened  the  eyes  of  men  to  see  heavenly 
visions  and  thus  enriched  them  with 
treasures  above  all  the  gold  of  the  world. 
Martin  Luther  invented  no  steam  en- 
gine or  sewing  machine,  but  he  taught 
men  the  rights  of  conscience  and  created 
our  modern  liberties.  No  material  thing, 
however  powerful  and  splendid,  can  make 
a  better  world:  this  work  calls  for  better 
men.  Therefore  when  God  brings  into  the 
world  a  child  endowed  with  superior  in- 
tellectual and  moral  power,  though  his 
gift  is  only  a  babe  and  seems  insignificant 

CSi] 


and  hardly  worth  counting  among  so 
many,  yet  he  has  sent  one  of  the  greatest 
gifts  of  which  his  omnipotence  is  capable. 
An  old  German  schoolmaster  always  took 
his  hat  off  to  each  new  boy  that  came  into 
his  school,  never  knowing  what  elements 
of  genius  might  have  been  mixed  in  his 
newly  molded  brain.  When  Erasmus  came 
out  of  that  school  his  prophetic  instinct 
was  justified.  Never  despise  a  child,  for 
in  it  sleeps  some  of  the  omnipotence  and 
worth  of  God. 

But  the  Child  which  God  gave  the  world 
as  its  Christmas  gift  was  no  merely  human 
child  however  richly  endowed.  This  Child 
was  human  and  was  born  in  time,  but  he 
was  also  divine  and  came  forth  from  eter- 
nity. The  possibilities  that  were  sleeping 
in  this  Child  were  foreseen  by  the  prophet 
Isaiah  in  the  names  that  were  propheti- 
cally given  him,  every  name  being  a  win- 
dow through  which  we  can  look  in  upon  his 

1:82] 


a  ^onDerful  0%^t 

personality  and  power,  every  title  being 
one  of  his  crowns:  "His  name  shall  be 
called  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  Mighty  God, 
Everlasting  Father,  Prince  of  Peace." 
All  these  powers  and  possibilities  are  in- 
carnated in  this  Child,  and  he  is  working 
them  out  in  a  redeemed  world.  God  made 
no  mistake,  then,  he  gave  us  no  small  and 
common  gift,  but  he  did  his  best  and  gave 
the  world  the  greatest  possible  Christmas 
Gift  when  this  Child  was  born.  All  the 
grass  in  the  world  came  from  one  seed,  all 
the  roses  from  one  root,  and  all  the  re- 
deemed that  shall  at  last  populate  heaven 
and  fill  it  with  praise  throughout  eternity 
shall  be  saved  by  the  grace  and  clad  in 
the  beauty  of  this  Child. 


n833 


XIX.  at  ^orlD  l^it^out  C^rtetma^ 


HAT  would  be  the  effect  of 
blotting  Christmas  out  of 
the  calendar  of  the  world? 
Imagination  would  have  to 
explore  wide  and  deep  in 
order  to  trace  all  the  con- 
sequences. The  gladdest 
holiday  of  the  year  would  fade  into  a  com- 
mon day.  The  weeks  that  precede  it  would 
lose  all  their  interest  of  preparation  and 
expectation  and  would  sink  into  dull  days. 
The  stores  would  not  blossom  out  into  bril- 
liant bazars,  cunning  fingers  would  not  be 
busy  in  secret,  there  would  be  no  making 
and  buying  and  hiding  gifts,  and  there 
would  be  nothing  waiting  to  be  disclosed  on 
Christmas  morning!  The  morning  of  this 
day  would  dawn  gray  and  bleak  just  like 
any  other  morning,  and  no  red  letter  would 
distinguish  it  on  the  calendar  of  the  year. 
There  would  be  no  glad  greetings  with  the 
first  streak  of  light,  no  rush  for  gifts  and 

1:843 


a  Woniitttnl  0iQ\)t 

joyous  surprises,  no  home  gatherings,  no 
neighborhood  festivities,  no  benefactions 
to  the  poor.  The  tide  of  life  would  not  on 
this  day  rise  higher  and  run  fuller  and  take 
on  richer  colors  and  sparkle  with  brighter 
joy,  but  it  would  remain  at  the  old  level 
and  creep  along  in  the  same  dull  sluggish 
way. 

Deeper  losses  would  result  from  blotting 
this  day  from  the  calendar.  There  would 
be  no  story  to  tell  of  that  wondrous  birth 
that  took  place  on  the  first  Christmas 
morning  and  fixed  the  date  from  which  all 
other  events  are  dated.  To  blot  Christmas 
out  of  the  world  we  would  have  to  blot 
nineteen  Christian  centuries  from  the 
history  of  the  world;  in  truth,  we  would 
have  to  go  farther  back  and  dig  up  the 
roots  of  Hebrew  history  running  through 
twenty  centuries.  We  would  have  to  go 
through  the  world  and  destroy  every 
church  and  Christian  institution:  nearly 

n8s3 


at  Wonhtxfxxl  0qf)t 

every  hospital  would  go  down  under  this 
fell  decree,  and  most  of  our  schools  and 
colleges.  Our  Bibles  would  all  have  to  be 
burned,  and  our  literature  would  be  per- 
forated and  ripped  to  pieces.  Furthermore, 
we  would  need  to  pull  out  of  human  char- 
acter and  life  all  the  strands  of  purity 
and  peace,  of  faith  and  love  and  hope, 
that  have  been  woven  into  the  hearts  and 
lives  of  men  by  the  hand  of  Christ.  We 
would  have  to  stop  all  our  preaching  and 
praying  and  hush  every  Christian  hymn 
and  song.  We  would  have  no  word  of  salva- 
tion from  sin,  no  comfort  in  trouble,  and  no 
hope  as  we  look  out  into  the  beyond.  The 
world  would  lose  its  Light  and  be  wrapped 
in  night. 

Do  we  want  such  a  world?  Can  we  be- 
lieve that  God  would  make  such  a  world 
and  leave  us  as  "infants  crying  in  the 
night,  infants  crying  for  the  light,  and  with 
no  language  but  a  cry"? 

1:863 


XX.  1^30  tlie  Cl)ri0tma0  g>ong  S)urljit3eD 

UT  has  not  the  Christmas 
star  already  been  extin- 
guished in  such  a  night? 
Has  the  angels'  song  sur- 
vived the  World  War? 
Have  not  its  notes  of  glory- 
to  God  in  the  highest  and 
peace  among  men  been  utterly  drowned 
and  lost  in  the  rattle  of  machine  rifles  and 
the  mighty  explosions  of  monster  guns  that 
shook  Europe  and  reverberated  around 
the  world?  Was  not  this  war  the  flat  denial 
and  total  annihilation  of  the  message  and 
spirit  of  Jesus,  entirely  silencing  the  angels' 
song  that  gladdened  the  earth  at  his  birth? 
Can  it  even  be  heard  after  many  months 
when  angry  voices  and  the  crash  of  falling 
wreckage  still  disturb  the  world?  These 
ominous  questions  are  causing  anxiety 
to  many  Christian  souls  and  may  well  give 
us  pause. 

1:87: 


Si  OTonUerful  il^ig^t 

But  the  gentlest  forces  are  ever  the 
mightiest  and  last  the  longest.  The  sun- 
light is  swallowed  up  in  the  storm  and  the 
very  sun  itself  seems  blotted  from  the 
heavens,  but  presently  the  blackness  breaks, 
the  clouds  roll  away,  and  the  sun  again 
smiles  upon  the  scene,  as,  indeed,  it  had 
never  ceased  to  smile.  The  song  of  the 
birds  is  hushed  in  the  crash  of  thunder  and 
the  rush  and  roar  of  wind  and  rain,  but 
after  the  storm  passes  their  dulcet  voices 
again  sing  out  with  fresh  gladness  in  their 
song.  A  hammer  can  pound  ice  to  powder, 
but  every  particle  is  still  unconquered  ice, 
and  only  the  gentle  kiss  of  the  sun  can 
subdue  and  melt  it  into  sweet  water.  High 
explosives  and  poisonous  gas  can  devastate 
the  earth,  but  only  the  balmy  breath  of 
the  springtime  can  clothe  it  in  verdure  and 
cause  it  to  burst  into  bud  and  bloom. 

The  war  has  indeed  enwrapped  and  in  a 
degree  wrecked  the  world,  and  the  voices 

CSS] 


3  l^onDerful  il^ig^t 

of  peace  were  little  heard  in  the  storm. 
But  now  that  the  guns  are  silenced  and 
the  clouds  are  rolling  away  peace  is  again 
surging  up  in  the  heart  of  humanity  as  a 
passion  and  is  at  the  work  of  clearing 
away  the  wreckage  and  of  rebuilding  the 
new  and  better  world  that  all  men  hope 
is  to  emerge  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  old. 
Alexander  and  Caesar  and  Napoleon  and 
the  Kaiser — mark  the  anticlimax! — are 
gone,  their  swords  are  rust,  their  dreams 
are  dust,  but  Jesus  Christ  remains  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever.  His 
penetrating  and  persistent  voice  was  not 
really  silenced  even  during  the  confusion 
of  the  war,  rather  was  he  then  speaking 
in  the  thunderous  tones  of  judgment;  and 
now  the  Christmas  angels  are  being  heard 
again  as  birds  are  heard  after  the  storm. 
The  hand  of  Christ  has  been  shaping  the 
course  of  the  world,  even  when  convulsed 
in  war,  and  is  now  remolding  its  plastic 

1:89] 


elements  into  form.  He  has  not  been  de- 
throned and  discrowned  in  this  world- 
cataclysm  in  which  so  many  thrones  and 
crowns  have  come  tumbling  down,  but  is 
still  the  Prince  of  Peace.  The  Man  of 
Nazareth  is  speaking  with  a  majestic  voice 
to-day  to  all  these  nations  and  asserting  the 
waste  and  wickedness  of  war  and  the 
brotherhood  of  man  as  they  were  never  as- 
serted before,  and  urging  them  to  build  a 
league  of  peace  that  may  be  the  greatest 
outcome  and  blessing  of  the  war.  A  new 
world  may  arise  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  old 
that  will  be  worth  all  the  blood  it  cost  and 
may  be  the  prelude  of  the  fulfillment  of  all 
the  dreams  of  prophets  and  poets  of  a  Par- 
liament of  Man  under  the  rule  of  which 
"the  kindly  earth  shall  slumber,  lapt  in 
universal  law."  Then  shall  the  angels' 
Christmas  song  break  from  the  gallery  of 
the  skies  and  fill  all  the  world  with  its  notes, 
"Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth 


a  OTonDerfiil  jpig^t 

peace   among   men    in   whom    he    is  well 
pleased." 


XXI.  ©tie  iliglJt  of  t\)t  ^orlD 

ESUS  was  born  into  a  dark 
world.  Politically  it  was 
bound.      Despotism     con- 


stricted and  strangled  it  at 
the  top,  and  at  the  bottom 
its  millions  were  shackled 
-  slaves.  Intellectually  it  was 
decadent.  Philosophy  had  stopped  and 
stagnated  in  Athens,  and  no  fresh  current 
of  thought  was  irrigating  the  world,  no  new 
light  was  breaking  upon  the  human  mind. 
Religiously  its  pagan  faiths  were  outworn 
and  dying  or  dead.  Judaism  itself  had  gone 
to  seed  and  was  only  a  dry  husk.  Morally 
the  world  was  terribly  corrupt,  from  its 
lowest  slums  up  to  the  palaces  of  the  rich 
where  sensuality  ran  riot.  As  a  consequence 

C913 


a  MonDerful  0z\\t 

of  these  conditions,  pessimism  spread  a  dark 
pall  over  the  world.  Men  everywhere  were 
in  despair.  They  entertained  the  darkest 
and  bitterest  views  of  life.  Nothing  seemed 
to  them  worth  while.  The  world  was  all  a 
muddle,  and  the  human  heart  cried  out  that 
Hfe 

Hath  really  neither  joy,  nor  love,  nor  light. 
Nor  certitude,  nor  peace,  nor  help  for  pain; 
And  we  are  here  as  on  a  darkling  plain 
Swept  with  confused  alarms  of  struggle  and  flight, 
Where  ignorant  armies  clash  by  night. 

Into  this  dark  world  Jesus  was  born. 
He  was  only  a  babe,  a  single  speck  in  the 
vast  mass  of  humanity,  but  this  Babe 
was  luminous  and  shone  with  heavenly 
light.  A  star  shed  its  radiance  over  his 
cradle — symbol  and  prophecy  of  his  mis- 
sion. As  he  grew  in  years  he  grew  in  lu- 
minosity until  he  lighted  up  Palestine 
and  shot  some  rays  across  the  borders  of 
that  little  land  into  the  great  world.  Death 

1:923 


could  not  quench  his  growing  light,  but 
he  rose  to  heaven,  as  the  sun  rises  to  its 
zenith,  whence  his  light  now  falls  in  in- 
creasing splendor  over  all  the  world. 

This  Light  has  been  shining  nineteen 
hundred  years  and  it  has  made  a  wide  and 
deep  impression  on  the  darkness.  Open  the 
map  of  the  world,  and  its  bright  spaces 
correspond  with  and  are  largely  caused  by 
the  shining  of  this  Light.  The  teachings 
and  spirit  and  power  and  personality  of 
Jesus  are  illuminating  the  world.  Political 
despotism  and  slavery  cannot  live  under 
the  light  of  his  gospel  of  brotherhood  and 
are  fleeing  from  his  presence.  Intellectual 
light  is  flooding  all  Christian  lands;  has 
it  not  been  touched  by  his  torch?  Moral 
darkness  is  being  penetrated  and  dissi- 
pated by  the  purity  and  peace  of  Christ. 
Pessimism  meets  its  match  and  victor  in 
his  mighty  jubilant  optimism.  He  clears 
the  world  of  the  muddle  of  its  confusion 

1:93: 


at  Wonntttal  0%\)t 

and  turns  it  into  our  Father's  house.  He 
lifts  life  up  and  makes  it  worth  while  in 
its  great  and  grand  meaning. 

As  from  the  uplifted  hand  of  the  Statue 
of  Liberty  in  New  York  harbor  there  shoots 
a  sheaf  of  electric  light  that  illuminates  all 
the  bay,  so  from  the  pierced  hand  of 
Christ  there  shines  a  blaze  of  light  that 
penetrates  and  scatters  the  darkness  of  the 
world.  We  live  in  this  Light.  This  is  the 
meaning  and  true  blessing  of  Christmas 
time.  This  is  the  real  joy  that  breaks  over 
the  world  on  Christmas  morning.  All  our 
gifts  derive  their  significance  from  this 
Gift;  all  our  joys  are  scintillations  of  this 
Light. 

O  thou  Light  of  the  world !  In  thy  Light 
help  us  to  see  light.  May  sin  not  wrap  us 
in  darkness,  may  not  a  worldly  life  breed 
in  us  a  spirit  of  bitterness  and  despair. 
Shine  upon  us  with  the  light  of  thy  truth 

1:943 


and  thy  love.  Light  up  the  world  for  us 
so  that  we  shall  see  it  as  our  Father's 
house.  May  thy  presence  put  a  deeper,, 
richer,  gladder  meaning  into  all  our  life 
and  pour  a  new  splendor  over  all  the  world. 
And  may  nations  come  to  thy  Light  and 
kings  to  the  brightness  of  thy  rising. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


[95  3 


P  21 


R   T  ?  *^'^'*WBM&>**^ 


ja  3     iK^U^-^r-T?-- 


"frt 


^^  '^^    OMlos  Mai 


B  ^3 


i  ') 


4- 


*. 


Date  Due 


BS2423  .567 

A  wonderful  night;  an  interpretation  of 


Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00013  2490 


